Chatham County, North Carolina is a lovely rural environment, just perfect for artists to create and show their work. Chatham's visual and performing artists offer unique authentic creations, just minutes from the Triangle, Triad and Southern Pines communities.
Come experience our creativity!
*Copyright of Forrest C. Greenslade, PhD

Saturday, June 9, 2012

When I was working at the Population Council in the 1980s, I spent a lot of time in East Africa. On one trip, my business partner and I took our wives along, and we went on camera safari to the Masai
Mara on the border of Kenya and Tanzania. It was a wonderful experience for all of us. One morning, we came upon a mother cheetah with five babies. This was a remarkable opportunity, because cheetahs are solitary hunters, and sometimes females don't survive pregnancy. When they do, they seldom have litters of more than two or three. So to find a mom with five kits was exciting. I took several photos, and in one, I caught all five babies climbing over momma.

I recntly decided to do a painting of this moment, using my photo as reference. As you can see in my photo, one of the babies was just behind the mother's head. In my painting, I had this kit stand up straight. Also, in my photo, mom had her eyes closed as she licked the ear of the baby in front of her. It my painting, I opened her eyes and had her stare out toward the viewer.
﻿﻿

Masai Mara Momma, a painting in watercolor and colored pencil

The painting is 16 by 20 inches using watercolor and colored pencil on paper. It was matted and framed by Galerria, using museum glass.

I am currently featuring this new painting, called Masai Mara Momma, at the Joyful Jewell in downtown Pittsboro.

About Forrest

"I was that kid you could always find turning over rocks in streams, looking for what wonders nature would disclose to me," says Greenslade. His curiosity about the natural world led him to a life as scientist and organizational executive. Now in retirement, Dr. Greenslade is again doing what he did when he was ten years old -- turning over rocks and sculpting and painting the wonders that nature discloses.
"I lived a serious life, but now in my dotage, I am just letting the kid out again," Greenslade smiles.
"It's more fun than an old guy deserves."
My wife Carol-Ann and I live in Fearrington Village, where we host The Artist's Garret AirBNB over my Organic Forrestry Studio.